Food Notes

By Florence Fabricant

Published: November 9, 1994

For some, Thanksgiving dinner is the annual occasion to cook. For others, it's business as usual, with some or all of the dinner ordered from catering shops, bakeries and restaurants.

Anyone interested in buying prepared food for Thanksgiving should be deep into the planning. Holiday menus have been posted at just about every catering shop and bakery and at many restaurants -- too many excellent ones, in fact, to begin recommending particular places or dishes. Most places have set the middle or the end of next week as the deadline for accepting orders.

When ordering for Thanksgiving, be sure to get complete reheating instructions. Try not to select an assortment of dishes that must all go into an oven at the same time but require different temperatures. Sample the foods you reheat to make sure the seasoning is to your taste. And be sure to order ample stuffing; there never seems to be enough.

If it will not be convenient to pick up the food or have it delivered Thanksgiving eve (perhaps refrigerator space is at a premium, for example), it pays to find a catering shop that will be open Thanksgiving morning. Most are not. Verify the hours and be prepared for crowds. Princely Biscuits

Prince Charles of England is doing one thing right. It's called Duchy Originals, a line of food products that deserves to sell as well as his biography. Two of the products, cookies -- or as the English call them, biscuits -- are now available in the United States. They are made from grain grown by tenant farmers on the estates of the Duchy of Cornwall, which have been domains of the Prince of Wales for 600 years.

The Prince established Duchy Originals in 1990 to produce and sell products made from crops grown on his estates. The project evolved when the Prince became interested in Shipton Mill, where the flour is milled, because it is adjacent to his estate at Highgrove in Gloucestershire, said John Lister, the managing director of Duchy Originals. The mill was a ruin until the Prince helped restore it 10 years ago.

Never mind the fancy crest imprinted on each cookie; the mellow, crumbly Oaten Biscuits and the subtly spicy Gingered Biscuits are for simple, homey tastes. The grains are organic.

And while Prince Charles may have a long way to go before he will be any match for Paul Newman, he has copied the actor's style: all profits from Duchy Originals are donated to charity, as are the proceeds from Newman's Own foods.

Baker's, the nation's largest-selling brand of bar chocolate for baking, has introduced white chocolate. The chocolate, in six-ounce packages for about $2, comes in the familiar one-ounce blocks scored in half-ounce sections.

This is good-quality white chocolate because its only fat is cocoa butter. Some brands of white chocolate replace some or all the cocoa butter with cheaper vegetable oils and are usually cloying. As white chocolate goes, Baker's is not excessively sweet.

The company also has a free 16-page recipe booklet for the holidays, which includes recipes that call for the new white chocolate as well as the company's other chocolates. It is available by sending a stamped, self-addressed business envelope to "Holiday Desserts," c/o Hunter MacKenzie, 41 Madison Avenue, New York 10010. Colorful Amaranth

The most stunning autumn salads are strewn with tricolor amaranth from Gourmet Garage, 453 Broome Street (at Mercer Street). The small, pointed leaves from a variety of amaranth -- a plant that is said to have been cultivated originally by the Aztecs -- are banded in green, pale yellow and deep red.

The leaves have a grassy taste with a hint of bitterness and are best mixed with milder or spicier greens. They are organically grown and come triple washed and dried so they can go right into the salad bowl. They are $1.50 an ounce, a quantity that is ample for ornamenting a couple of servings.